Well, the real question here is whether to develop a native app or go ahead by designing a responsive website. This is a tough call to make while planning and designing an approach for application development. Mobile website and mobile app. At first glance, it may seem there isn’t a big difference between those two, but let’s dive a little deeper into the topic. Because actually, we are talking about two very important, connected and still a bit different things. Web designing and application development business for a long time. Hopefully, we can give shed some light on this topic.
In this article, we are not going to tell you which one works better. After all, it isn’t even a question. Instead, you’ll understand the main difference between mobile apps and responsive websites. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to choose what is more preferable to you or which one is more appropriate for your business. Let’s start by defining what a native application is, a native application is designed to perform on a particular platform.
This platform can be Android, IOS or even windows depending upon the objectives of the business. A native app is designed as per specifications and guidelines for a particular platform or device. For example, YouTube offers background playback for Android devices. But to date, Apple users are waiting for this feature of their iPhones.
A responsive website is self-optimizing and it provides the best experience to users no matter what device is being used. The device may be an Android or an Apple or a user may be using their computing device to access the website. Each device will be able to browse and scroll without any issues on a responsive website.
A responsive website optimizes itself to offer a better viewing experience to the user irrespective of the device he/she may be used with minimum resizing, panning and scrolling. The main purpose of designing a responsive website is to have only one website but still offering ease of use for different devices.
This approach allows the business to build its digital presence without having to invest in developing an application for their business. With the increase in the use of smartphones for viewing websites and webpages, having a responsive website is essential to offer better user experience and interface to each type of device users.
Remember the old days where some websites which used to work brilliantly on a computer device gave users navigation problems or scrolling issues through the content properly on mobile phones. This is because a mobile device has a smaller screen size than a desktop or laptop device and thus the navigation and scrolling experience is different for each device. A responsive website eliminates this issue and gives almost similar experience throughout devices. This gave users almost similar experience across all types of devices.
Why a responsive website is better than a native application, well as you have read above the major differences between a responsive website and a native application. We can say that instead of developing an application for different platforms having a responsive website is a much better option. To further support this statement we can sum up a few more points which may help shed more light.
The main reasons why one can use responsive web designing over application development are:
- A responsive website is cheaper than a mobile application as it requires less planning and development time. Also, there is no need to change the coding language as per the different mobile platforms.
- A responsive website works properly on all the devices and platforms. Thus, there is no need to develop an application for a particular platform or device.
- The number of smartphone users, from 30 percent to almost 82 percent in the year 2019. Users were switching from computer devices to smartphones for internet access.
A concern that most people have is whether to use a responsive website or not. Well, you can use either of these approaches, or you can have both. It all comes down to your business objectives and the timeline for which you are planning your strategies.
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About Author
Mr. Bhuvnesh Mathur
Bhuvnesh got his Bachelor's degree in software engineering in 2017 and has been working in Vidhema Technologies since 2018 as SEO Lead and technical writer. He has a special knack of learning from all verticals and imbibing the extracts into his writing and enjoys learning techincal aspects of of writing for his experties as SEO and SMO. In his writing he express his experience and understading of different technologies.